Cadbury Schweppes plc and The Carlyle Group of Washington DC today confirmed that they have completed the acquisition of the Dr Pepper Bottling Company of Texas.

The Dr Pepper Bottling Company of Texas will be combined with The American Bottling Company, owned by Cadbury Schweppes and The Carlyle Group, to form the largest independent soft drinks bottler in the US...

... Cadbury Schweppes will hold approximately 40% of Dr Pepper/Seven Up Bottling Group, Inc. (DPSUBG), The Carlyle Group 53%, with the remainder held by Jim Turner, Chief Executive Officer and President of DPSUBG, and management. John Brock, Managing Director of Cadbury Schweppes Beverages Stream, is Chairman of DPSUBG...[Click here for MORE]

(Please NOTE: Not ALL Dr Pepper has been taken over. THE DUBLIN, TEXAS CO with the Original Recipe has NOT Merged with The Carlyle Group and should not be Boycotted.)

Who to BOYCOTT? Here's a START!

OUR BRANDS & PROMOTIONS

If you think we've cornered the market on flavor, you're right. While the DPSU refreshment roster boasts Dr Pepper and 7 UP, our lineup also includes A&W, Sunkist, Slush Puppie and RC Cola brands, Squirt, Welch´s and Canada Dry. And we've got some of the top promotions to boot as well.

From NASCAR racing to the GRAMMY's(!), DPSU offers consumers a wide range of fun promotional opportunities. Pop a top and check us out!

WHO ARE THESE BAD BOYS?


Read all about them in this LATIMES Article.

Carlyle's way
Making a mint inside "the iron triangle" of defense, government, and industry.
By Dan Briody
January 8, 2002

Like everyone else in the United States, the group stood transfixed as the events of September 11 unfolded. Present were former secretary of defense Frank Carlucci, former secretary of state James Baker III, and representatives of the bin Laden family. This was not some underground presidential bunker or Central Intelligence Agency interrogation room. It was the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., the plush setting for the annual investor conference of one of the most powerful, well-connected, and secretive companies in the world: the Carlyle Group. And since September 11, this little-known company has become unexpectedly important.

That the Carlyle Group had its conference on America's darkest day was mere coincidence, but there is nothing accidental about the cast of characters that this private-equity powerhouse has assembled in the 14 years since its founding. Among those associated with Carlyle are former U.S. president George Bush Sr., former U.K. prime minister John Major, and former president of the Philippines Fidel Ramos. And Carlyle has counted George Soros, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Alsaud of Saudi Arabia, and Osama bin Laden's estranged family among its high-profile clientele. The group has been able to parlay its political clout into a lucrative buyout practice (in other words, purchasing struggling companies, turning them around, and selling them for huge profits)--everything from defense contractors to telecommunications and aerospace companies. It is a kind of ruthless investing made popular by the movie Wall Street, and any industry that relies heavily on government regulation is fair game for Carlyle's brand of access capitalism. Carlyle has established itself as the gatekeeper between private business interests and U.S. defense spending. And as the Carlyle investors watched the World Trade towers go down, the group's prospects went up... <much more>


The Best Enemies Money Can Buy
From Hitler To Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden - Insider Connections and the Bush Family's Partnership with Killers of Americans

Brown Brothers, Harriman - BNL- and the Carlyle Group By Michael C. Ruppert

FTW, Oct. 9, 2001 - Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, major media powerhouses and the increasingly influential alternative media alike have begun to focus attention on Bush family connections and a long history of arming and financing America's attackers in the months and years prior to the outbreak of war. Recent stories in the Wall Street Journal (Sept. 27 & 28, 2001), ABC News (Oct. 1, 2001), as well as a host of reports from so-called alternative news sources have begun to focus attention on the Bush family's profit-making role in creating and arming our enemies.

The following is a more comprehensive look at the documented history of these relationships that will also open some new avenues of inquiry for the press, Congress and the American people.

This article is a pretty good overview of the relationships:

But, does a boycott go anywhere without the link to terrorism?

That's the $64 million question in this. Does making money for the bin Ladens (who claim they've withdrawn their investments in Carlyle) necessarily mean support of al-Qaeda and similar groups? Unless there's proof of a money link through Carlyle to Osama bin Laden (such as bin Laden corporate profits still accruing to OBL), then a boycott of a Carlyle investment would be seen as an attack on the elder Bush, rather than a refusal to support terrorism--the latter having a lot more clout and impact.

Consider this:

"The bin Ladens’ departure coincided with Carlyle’s announcement that it expected to raise approximately $300 million by taking its privately held United Defense Industries public. Among other things, this defense contractor produces missile launch systems that are currently aboard U.S. war ships in the Arabian Sea..."

War Profiteering. Some historical context...
From The Nation | Posted April 24, 2003

... But where's the outrage? Where is the leader with the courage to say, as Franklin Roosevelt did during World War II, "I don't want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result of this world disaster"? Democrats in Congress--and Republicans who have not placed their conscience in a blind trust for the duration of the Bush/Cheney years, a group we hope still includes Arizona's John McCain in the Senate and Iowa's Jim Leach in the House--should borrow a page from past wars, when the nation's elected leaders knew what to call businessmen who used hostilities abroad as an excuse to raid the federal treasury. Senator Robert La Follette tagged them as "enemies of democracy in the homeland." During World War II Harry Truman referred to some forms of war profiteering as "treason."

When he heard rumors of such profiteering, Truman got into his Dodge and, during a Congressional recess, drove 30,000 miles paying unannounced visits to corporate offices and worksites. The Senate committee he chaired launched aggressive investigations into shady wartime business practices and found "waste, inefficiency, mismanagement and profiteering," according to Truman, who argued that such behavior was unpatriotic. Urged on by Truman and others in Congress, President Roosevelt supported broad increases in the corporate income tax, raised the excess-profits tax to 90 percent and charged the Office of War Mobilization with the task of eliminating illegal profits. Truman, who became a national hero for his fight against the profiteers, was tapped to be FDR's running mate in 1944... <more>

At the Very least we have a Responsibility to Boycott these products - but there should also be a Nation wide Clamor for Disclosure (We're tired of your Secrets Mr Bush, they are literally killing us) and for the Re-enactment of the WAR PROFITEERING ACT.

Write/Call/Email/Fax your Congress and the Media and Demand ANSWERS.

Special thanks to DubyaDubyaDubya.com for the incredible graphic - to Bev Harris for her tireless work to lead our Nation to the light of Truth, and others associated with the DemocraticUnderground, another Beacon in this new dark age foisted on us by a circle of corporations who've installed their puppet dictator in our very own country.

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